7. Nuclear power plants need less fuel than ones which burn fossil fuels.

8. The International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is used to communicate the severity of nuclear accidents on a scale of 0 to 7. The Chernobyl disaster which happened in 1986 in Ukraine was the worst nuclear accident in history and is the only event to receive an INES score of 7.

9. A power plant must shut down every 18-24 months to remove its spent uranium fuel, which has become radioactive waste.

10. A person would have to live near a nuclear power plant for over 2,000 years to get the same amount of radiation exposure that he/she get from a single diagnostic medical X-ray.

Sunday, 26 February 2012

The
achievement in meeting justifiable public concerns has provided the foundation
by prompting governments in countries representing the predominance of world
population and economic activity to consider a wider exploitation of the
benefits of nuclear energy. One of the benefits of nuclear energy is that it
can bring positive impact to the national with its price stability and security
of energy supply in that country. Not only that, nuclear energy is
environmental friendly in which this energy contributes near-zero greenhouse
gas emissions.

Without the backing from the citizens or political support from the government, utilizing nuclear energy in power industry is certainly impossible to achieve. Therefore, it is vital to have the support from both sides to realize our nation's dream to make Malaysia an industrialized and developed country in 2020.

Monday, 20 February 2012

With the price of coal, oil & gas going up and down unexpectedly, we should consider to make nuclear energy as an alternative source of energy in Malaysia. This is because nuclear energy is 'greener' and more competitive. Although there are incredible risks of utilizing nuclear for power generation to the people around it, with proper handling and knowledge from the experts can give us great advantage and move us a step closer to making Malaysia an industrialized & developed country.

Operating Nuclear Power Plant

The letter below is taken from the New Straits Times on 4th April 2009 written by A.M.O, Kuala Lumpur.

AS recently as two years ago, we were looking at the possibility of going nuclear for our power generation, probably in view of the soaring prices of oil in the world market.

When the oil price goes up, gas and coal prices rise in tandem and vice versa.Ordinary Malaysians were also forced to fork out a lot more to fill their tanks, while at the same time, looking at the prospect of higher electricity tariffs and rising prices of goods. Suddenly, there was an unexpected slump in oil prices and, correspondingly, prices of gas and coal.

Today, talk about having to go nuclear has died down and things appear normal again. But let's not forget, fossil fuel is a depleting resource and things could change for the worse. I am deeply concerned the government seems to be easily losing its focus when, in fact, it should be giving serious consideration to exploring nuclear energy as an alternative source of energy which is cleaner, competitive, climate-friendly and sustainable for base-load electricity generation.

Although the plan, if pursued, would materialise in 15 or 20 years' time, it would need proper planning and early preparation right from now. Most importantly, the government must have the political will to make it happen.Since nuclear energy is little known to the masses, and often associated with negativity, public opposition is certainly something which cannot be avoided.

What needs to be done is to provide accurate and up-to-date information to educate the people on the matter, as they would oppose it because they are uninformed or misinformed about nuclear energy.We may have a surplus of electricity at the moment. But let's not forget that our population is growing and despite the economic downturn, the property sector has not shown any sign of slowing down.

We may have sufficient oil, gas and coal at the moment, but these are depleting resources and getting much more costly to extract. Depending on fossil fuel for our electricity supply could prove to be expensive and environmentally damaging in the long run. Putting up the infrastructure for renewable energy such as solar and wind power appears impossible at the moment.Recently, it was reported that Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil company, will no longer invest in renewable technologies such as wind and solar energy because it is not economically viable.Hydropower is another source of electricity generation but building dams means inundating vast forest areas.

Transmitting power from the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam, which should be the largest in Southeast Asia and will produce 2,400 megawatts of electricity when completed, is still bogged down by uncertainties.The reason could be that the cost of laying the undersea cable to supply electricity to Peninsular Malaysia from Sarawak has soared beyond imagination.

It is also understood that Tenaga Nasional Bhd is finding it much more difficult to secure coal supplies from Indonesia. Detractors of nuclear energy would certainly refer to the Chernobyl disaster at every opportunity, but the incident in Ukraine more than 20 years ago was a result of flawed reactor design; moreover the plant was operated by inadequately trained personnel without proper regard for safety.

Today, the Russians have learned their lessons. An authoritative United Nations report in 2000 concluded that there is no scientific evidence of any significant radiation-related health effects to most people exposed.

This was confirmed in a very thorough 2005 to 2006 study. I think it is time to seriously look into the prospect of putting in place infrastructure to gear the country towards introducing nuclear power as the energy of the future, especially as other nations, including our neighbours Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, are examining nuclear power as a viable option in the long run.

Friday, 17 February 2012

In nuclear medicine procedures, radionuclides are combined with other elements to form chemical compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical compounds, to form radiopharmaceuticals. These radiopharmaceuticals, once administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs or cellular receptors. This property of radiopharmaceuticals allows nuclear medicine the ability to image the extent of a disease-process in the body, based on the cellular function and physiology, rather than relying on physical changes in the tissue anatomy. In some diseases nuclear medicine studies can identify medical problems at an earlier stage than other diagnostic tests. It would not be wrong to call Nuclear Medicine as "Radiology done inside out" or "Endo-radiology" because it records radiation emitting from within the body rather than radiation that is generated by external sources like Xrays.

Treatment of diseased tissue, based on metabolism or uptake or binding of a particular ligand, may also be accomplished, similar to other areas of pharmacology. However, the treatment effects of radiopharmaceuticals rely on the tissue-destructive power of short-range ionizing radiation.

In the future, nuclear medicine may provide added impetus to the field known as molecular medicine. As our understanding of biological processes in the cells of living organism expands, specific probes can be developed to allow visualization, characterization, and quantification of biologic processes at the cellular and subcellular levels.Nuclear medicine is an ideal specialty to adapt to the new discipline of molecular medicine, because of its emphasis on function and its utilization of imaging agents that are specific for a particular disease process.

What are some common uses of the procedure?

Physicians use radionuclide imaging procedures to visualize the structure and function of an organ, tissue, bone or system within the body in order to:Cancer

stage cancer by determining the presence or spread of cancer in various parts of the body

localize sentinel lymph nodes before surgery in patients with breast cancer or melanoma

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

In realizing our
country’s Vision 2020 (Wawasan 2020) which has the primary objective of making
Malaysia a fully developed country by the year 2020, the government has to take
the right action to meet the nation future energy demands. Eventually, the
fossil fuels will be exhausted or depleted. Without denying the vast number of
other renewable energy sources, our country should also look into more
sophisticated technologies to tap these energy sources. Renewable energy
sources such as solar, wind, and tidal are proven not so suitable in Malaysia due to its weather and geography. That being said, having nuclear energy for power
generation in near future seems inevitable.

So, should
Malaysia go nuclear to meet its future energy demands? Indeed, this question
has been the focus of heated political debate in this country for the past nine
years or so. Malaysia’s fourth Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, was resolutely
committed to a non-nuclear country. However, his successors have made some moves
toward nuclear energy production since his resignation. For instance, Dato’ Sri
Peter Chin Fah Kui, who is the current Minister of Energy, Green Technology
& Water, announced plans to build two 1000MW nuclear power plants by the
year 2022 during his speech in December 2010. A month later, Dato’ Sri Najib
Razak announced the establishment of the Malaysian Nuclear Power Corporation
which lead the planning process of nuclear energy in this country.

Needless to say
that he Fukushima accident has raised doubts whether Malaysia is ready for
nuclear power, but however Deputy Prime Minister remained confident that
Malaysia would “implement what is the best” for the country and learn from
Japan to ensure public safety.

Below is the article “Malaysia says to go ahead with
nuclear plans, to learn from Japan crisis”taken from The
Malaysian Insider (15th March 2011) by Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani:

The No. 3 nuclear reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
plant is seen burning after a blast yesterday, March 14, 2011. Muhyiddin said
the Malaysian government will learn from Japan to ensure public safety.

PUTRAJAYA, March 15 — Malaysia is taking note of the Japan nuclear
crisis when implementing its plan to build two nuclear power plants in the
future, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.

He hat while the government is concerned about public safety and is
watching developments in Japan, he remained confident that Malaysia would
“implement what is the best” for the country.

The deputy prime minister stressed that the government would learn from
Japan to ensure public safety.

“I think it is something which every country in the world is taking
note of, what is happening in Japan. There are many things that we can learn
but what is important is the safety of the country and the people.

“In this matter, we have an agency that is responsible and they know
what they are doing and we are confident that they will implement what is the
best,” he told reporters during a press conference today.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin had also
said that the “government will not do it secretly without informing the
public”. Chin added that the Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation had opened a
tender to international consultants to conduct a study on the location,
suitability and safety of the location, type of technology and public
acceptance of the proposal.

However, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek yesterday had called
on the government to reconsider building a nuclear plant following the
explosions to nuclear reactors in Japan after the March 11 earthquake and
tsunami that devastated the country.

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As the population increases and our country becomes more industrialized, the idea of using nuclear energy for power generation is certainly the right one. The truth is, Malaysia cannot continue to depend heavily on fossil fuels (natural gas & coal) for power production. These fossil fuels will deplete eventually.
In fact, many other developed countries have opted for nuclear power due to its efficiency & environmentally friendly effect.
Therefore, what's stopping us to "go green, go nuclear"?